Saturday, I got to hang w/my Denton peeps @Banters and enjoying music by UVER, one of the bands that one of my friends plays in. Good food, drink & great fun! Also got to take some pics on the Square w/my fisheye (incl. here). This week has been exciting! My friend Tara, who I haven’t seen is over 20 years is going to be in Texas in a few weeks! I’m looking forward to seeing her & her folks again! In two weeks I’m doing photos for my mom’s wedding but am very nervous b/c I suck at flash photography lately. Most of the flash pics i’ve taken have been utter garbage. I can’t seem to find a consistant way to set the exposure properly for the flash, particularly when bouncing and get reliably decent results. With my old film camera it was simple – just set the speed to 125x and set the aperture to what was indicated by the little dial on my flashgun based on the distance to the subject and fire – 9 out of 10 times it came out well, but no such luck w/this camera and flashgun, it seems to be lots more complicated. It’s true, though that I didn’t ever really try bouncing or mixing ambient light back then. 😦

Fifi flys Again! – “Fifi is the only flying B-29 Strato Fortress in the world. This is one of the combat airplanes that flew from Iwo Jima, Saipan, Tinian islands to bomb Japan and help win the war…” http://vimeo.com/17388627 (video)
Thanks, C!

“…Consider a core function of state and local governments: schools. Over the period 1970-2005, school spending per pupil, adjusted for inflation, doubled, while standardized achievement test scores were flat. Over roughly that same time period, public-school employment doubled per student…” We’ve Become a Nation of Takers, Not Makers (courtesy: “The Wall Street Journal”)

“…the ground of being and/or the ultimate overarching principle on which America’s Constitutional Republic is founded is, “In the beginning God created…”

“Occult spirituality always surfaces at the end of a civilization. It heralded the end of Babylon, Rome and the Aztec civilization. …and now it has come at the end of the post-Christian West…a social order that has attempted to sustain itself without God.”

“During Rome’s darkest, most evil hours, early Christians, thousands of whom were cut in half, used as human torches, and crucified upside-down nevertheless successfully forced occult forces underground, thus allowing for Christendom and later on America to arise.”